Creating a Budget

Getting your budget started

The complexity of your budget will depend on the goals, objectives, and requirements outlined in your digital workplace plan. To help you get started, here are some key questions you should think about when building your budget:

When do you want the digital workplace launched?

Who will own the launch project?

How many team members will manage the launch project (full and part-time)?

Do you plan to use a consultant at anytime during the entire lifecycle of your digital workplace?

Do you plan on creating a dedicated team to support your digital workplace solution after launch?

Technology - build or buy?

On-premise or cloud solution?

Security costs due to industry and/or compliance?

How many users will be accessing the site?

What are the long-term growth plans for the digital workplace?

Key budget items

The following is a list of key items which should be included in your digital workplace budget:

Technology

Create a section in your budget which summarizes all the projected technology costs for your digital workplace project. Cloud solutions like Igloo leverage a yearly subscription licensing model which includes most, if not all, the underlying technology costs for your digital workplace solution.

Typical technology costs for a digital workplace include the following components:

Software licenses

Hosting fees

Maintenance and upgrades

Optional modules

Support services

Data storage

Disaster recovery

Implementation

The duration of implementation varies based on the complexity and priority of the project. Generally, implementation timelines range from 8 to 16 weeks. Costs associated with implementation should be fairly straightforward and are usually allocated as "one-time" costs in the budget.

Typical implementation costs include:

Set-up

Configuration

Design

Consulting

Customizations

Accelerated development

Training

Quality assurance/testing

Legal fees

Be sure to allocate all costs (e.g. including technology infrastructure, leases, rent etc. ) associated with internal resources, staff, and technology. This should include both full- and part-time staff allocations including:

Project manager

Key business stakeholders

IT resources

Corporate communications

Human resources

External consultant

Launch

Once your digital workplace is ready to launch, it’s all about getting your employees on board and engaged. Whether you launch gradually or at once, it is a best practice that you launch a communication campaign around the project to build up excitement and to encourage usage. Depending on the scale of your launch, you may incur costs associated with:

Creating and printing of collateral

Running promotions or contests (e.g. prizes)

Gifts (e.g. for your advocates and sponsors)

Staff time

Operations & Governance

Once the digital workplace is live, you need to budget for the ongoing operational costs to manage, govern, and evolve your digital workplace solution. We strongly recommend at a minimum to have a digital workplace manager and a steering committee in the budget, along with future technology costs as you scale the solution.

Digital workplace manager

Steering Committee

Engagement programs

Subscription license fees (e.g. projecting growth)

Support and maintenance fees

Staff allocations outside of the core team such as advocates, subject matter experts (SMEs), consultants

Sample Budget

Below is a sample budget template. It divides the budget costs into five distinct categories: